Friday, 16 November 2012

Full Service, Love!

I am indebted to a regular reader of The World’s Worst
Records, who has asked to remain anonymous, for pointing me in the direction of
today’s performer – Amy Beth Parravano – and her album Full Service Love.

Although Full Service Love is an album of Amy Beth’s
originals she’s better known as one of the world’s very few female Elvis
impersonators: she cheekily markets herself as Elvis’ Lil’ Sister although, to
the best of my knowledge, Elvis’ beloved mother Gladys didn’t have an affair
with anyone called Parravano. In character she's performed worldwide at Elvis fan festivals and, judging by the cover of this album, makes a pretty mean Ms Elvis.

Her biography reads like a who’s who of Nashville: she’s
worked with Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Rodriquez and Joey Welz
(of Bill Haley and his Comets); she has performed all across the United States
and internationally, has recorded ten albums and produces and hosts her own
television show "Amy Beth Presents". A fan of 50s music, especially Elvis,
in the 80's she started her own record label, Peridot Records, and began
releasing her original material. She claims to have had had a national chart
record with her song North Hampton Line (although nothing appears on the
Billboard charts), which resulted in her signing to Caprice Records where she ‘had
a string of chart records on the US and overseas’ – which again I can find no
evidence for. Her official biography also claims that Amy Bath was ‘inducted
into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame’: the official list of the 380 or so inductees
so far fails to include her name.
It appears that Amy Beth (or AmyBeth as she is credited when not doing her
Elvis schtick) likes to be a bit fast and loose when it comes to the truth, or
at least her Elvis’ Lil’ Sister persona does.

In her ‘real’ life AmyBeth is a married woman of 60 with
two fully grown children and is currently a pianist at the Roger Williams Park
Carousel in Providence, Rhode Island. You can catch her there every Saturday,
from 2pm to 4pm, where she plays ragtime piano, nickelodeon style, dressed in a
sequined waistcoat and top hat. She’s appeared as an extra in a number of movies,
including Underdog, 27 Dresses and Hachiko, and even has her own local access
cable TV show, the aforementioned “AmyBeth Presents”. She’s written a horror film, Broom Ride to
Salem, which was screened as part of the Rhode Island International Horror Film
Festival, and has auditioned for American’s Got Talent, dressed as one of her
other characters Amy the Mime and singing the Mamas and the Papas song Dream a
Little Dream of Me, although quite how a mime is supposed to sing I don't rightly know. Still, she’s certainly a busy lady and, by all accounts, quite a character.

Anyway, for your enjoyment here’s the painful Hero For the 90s, from
Amy Beth’s 2008 album Full Service Love.

rockabilly listings were lost in a flood!...being restored Parravano is AmyBeth's marriage last name

PeridotRecords.com is her label & she performed with The Hounddogs instudio band the rockmill recording/caprice label is defunct since 1990's......none of the CD projects were listed online only available thru mailorder & some at CDBaby

AND NOW, THE NEWS...
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Good evening. Here's what's happening in the world of outsider music. Our
top story today:
- Florence Foster Jenkins, "The World's Worst Opera Singer," is ...

1 year ago

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